It is not a secret that Intel Corp.’s next-generation extreme enthusiast-class microprocessors code-named “Ivy Bridge-E” will be barely faster than the currently available Core i7-3800/3900-series “Sandy Bridge-E” chips. Based on early test results obtained by a Chinese enthusiast from Coolaler.com forum, the new high-end desktop (HEDT) processor will be just up to 10% faster than existing offering.

A “honorary member” of the Coolaler.com (the web-site belongs to one of the world’s top professional overclockers) called Toppc has compared current top-of-the-range Intel Core i7-3970X “Sandy Bridge-E” to what he claims to be Intel Core i7-4960X “Ivy Bridge-E”, which will be Intel’s highest performing desktop chip later this year. The results of the benchmarks cannot be verified, but given the reputation of Coolaler, they may be considered more or less trustworthy.

The list of benchmarks includes 3DMark, Cinebench 11.5, CPUMark99, SuperPi and wPrime, which hardly show real-world performance, but give an idea what performance boost to expect from the new chip compared to its predecessor. Keeping in mind that the Ivy Bridge micro-architecture has few advantages over Sandy Bridge micro-architecture, the Core i7-4960X should not be substantially faster than the Core i7-3970X.

Intel Core i7-4960X processors and other Ivy Bridge-E chips are expected to emerge on the market in the second half of the year and be drop-in compatible with today’s LGA2011 HEDT infrastructure.